his is only the start. You’re only opening the book. You’re only on the first line of what’s going to take a little while.” The opening line to Long Live’s “The City” which is already slated to be an anthem for this generation seemed to be an almost prophetic opener to this interview with Chariot front-man Josh Scogin. Enough talk about that one band that he used to be in, The Chariot drops their 5th full-length album on us like a bomb knocking down the stereotypes and boxes that we are working so hard to build for ourselves these days. If this is not apparent on your first listen through Long Live then maybe this will help clarify what Scogin’s heart was with this album, and what he wants to say to our generation. These are strange times, they are tough times, but as Scogin gives us a look back at out roots it becomes apparent that these can also be hopeful times. And hopefully growing times. I talked on the phone with Scogin as he sat at his Atlanta home on one of his few days off. About halfway through this interview he apologized laughing “Sorry I’m a bit long winded.” I’m glad he was though, because this is exactly what we need to hear right now.

This is an incredible album. And I get the sense that it is full of hidden or coded meaning. If you are willing to decode some of it for us it would be rad. The first thing that sticks out to me is the track titles. In true Chariot fashion… What is behind these track titles?

Josh Scogin: Well, the whole album is not a concept album but definitely a very themed album with the CD title being Long Live. Its something that we’ve had planned for quite a while now so what we actually did was all those peoples’ names that are on there are actually just people who love our band. Its really that simple. Back when we did Wars we had the idea of doing a CD that had real peoples’ names and we didn’t know exactly where we were going to go with it but that’s what the next record was gonna have. So with Wars we hand-stamped the first 30,000 copies and signed them. And so we were like if we’re going to use real names, instead of making it up lets actually use real peoples names, and what better people to use than people who support the band, who like the band, who come to our shows, etc. And so we devised a way, we were like “How can we pick just like five random people?” So we had a contest and basically, this was back during Wars, and we said the first five people that could collect all five of our signatures we would throw them on the song titles. The concept there being you didn’t have to do this but obviously if you did it, these are the people that really like our band, they like it so much they knew about the contest, they wanted to do the contest and they pulled it off. And you know Long Live is supposed to be open ended, is supposed to be an unfinished statement. Long live and then whatever you want to put in there. But for us its almost a very grateful record, its almost very “Thank you” and so therefore with all of the peoples’ names and with the title being Long Live and even with the shots, all the artwork being live shots its just a very organic “This is the world we live in” record. These are the people that help us keep going. These are the people that push us and obviously we’d love to represent every person but obviously we couldn’t so we tried to devise a plan that would give a small snippet of these people at least.

That’s incredible. And then every other track is like “The Audience,” “The City,” “The Heavens.” How connected are these tracks?

JS: Basically again with the long live sort of stuff, we wanted to start small and sort of work our way up. “The Audience” “The City” “The Heavens”-its basically a small thing that gets bigger and then we end with “The King” which for us has a few meanings. Starting on a small scale and working your way big. “The King” could represent something that’s performing in front of royalty, performing in front of whatever, its sort of a long term motion of starting small and then growing and then forming in that. And then also as far as growing as a band as far as Long Live, as far as longevity, it sort of wraps up and represents the maturity as well for us. You know, what started out as a punk rock band with whatever as a goal making its way just playing show after show after show and then making its way into something that’s hopefully a little bit more meaningful and hopefully a little bit more of a blessing on folks and more of a meaning behind it. And that’s sort of how “The King” wraps it all up and ties it all together for us anyway.

Talk to me about the track “The City.” It seems like an anthem, or a calling to our generation. Can you elaborate on some of your thoughts behind the track?

JS: Awesome. Well I mean its hard to talk about without sounding a little… I mean i don’t want to sound arrogant, I don’t want to sound like “Whatever” but I don’t know man, sometimes I get kind of bummed out at the generation we live in. Sometimes I get kinda bummed out at the day and age that we live in with all the technologies and all the stuff and I feel like you see, and I don’t know how true it is, but you see these cool hippie videos of the 60’s and 70’s and their all rallied around Washington DC protesting whatever and whether it’s for the better or not it’s still this community this “We will stand up for what we believe and it doesn’t matter who’s against us, we’re for it so we’re gonna do this.” And there’s sort of this lack maybe in this day and age and maybe its a little over dramatic but I sometimes get kind of bummed when I’m thinking about the world in which we live sometimes. And I think about, man, I don’t know if a real disaster happened, like morally speaking, what people wanna stand up for. And I don’t know what people want to stand up for, because I don’t know if people care anymore. I don’t know if there’d be the riots outside. It seems like the only riots that take place, and not that I’m into violence, but the only things that take place are over stuff that’s completely dumb. All that to say, I really wanted to produce a song that at least gave that feeling as best we could, like you said, like there’s no real big mean man to fight against, there’s no real big mean item that we all need to gather up together and fight. There’s obviously wars going on that we may as people disagree with and there’s obviously situations going on.

So I wrote this song as open ended as I could and general as I could but I wanted to get some sort of feeling of, you know, I say it in the last line “This is a revolution” I wanted to get some sort of feeling, even from the big stuff of the hippies back in the day gathering the others and protesting what they believe, but I wanted little stuff. We used to live in a world where in the underground music scene the people never really talked about it but the people gathered together and basically it was like a big middle finger to the MTV’s and even the Hot Topic’s and the chains, this that and the other, because it was like, “You know what I’m gonna go to these shows because I know that I’m supporting them, I’m helping them go from show to show to show. It was this community, it was this underground world of people that was like, I’m gonna buy the record, I’m gonna make sure I support them, I’m gonna push this band. They need my help. And even that I feel this day and age is a little bit lost. We play sometimes to a much younger audience and I don’t know if they ever knew of that world or at least if they can even relate to it. In saying that obviously no offense to Hot Topic and all those worlds. I mean that’s the world we live in now. But its like the community, I’m quite bummed, I feel like we’ve sort of lost sometimes and in others ways maybe we haven’t. Maybe I’m a little over dramatic but I do feel like sometimes that world doesn’t exist. And everybody is just kind of like “This band is good.” But back in the day of “Man this band is good! I’m gonna do anything I can to make sure they stay on the road because they need me. Because they don’t have radio play, they don’t have MTV, they don’t have money coming in, touring is their only source of income.”

Anyway, I don’t really know if I answered the question but basically I did one song that at least felt like one sort of “Lets gather together” kind of revolution sounding song. And I’m not really revolting against anything in and of the song other than just us loving to see that sort of mentality return back to the music world. Because I mean our band very much so, not that the underground really exists anymore, but our money’s made from live shows. So its a world that I live in and something that I felt very passionate about and just wanted a song that felt like maybe some of those old protest songs but obviously with a modern edge to it.

Well thank you for trying to inspire hearts, I really hope it catches on. So who is the “She” you speak of in “Robert Rios?”

JS: I guess the short answer of that would be… It’s complicated, but basically the “She” is actually talking about me. But obviously I didn’t want to talk about me. Again it kinda goes back to generation stuff, again maybe a little over dramatic, but I guess the struggle sometimes for me is, I use this word loosely, but if you are preaching to a whole bunch of people who don’t care then what is the point I guess. And I don’t mean that in a literally spiritual way than that revolution sort of feel, that whole vibe, that whole sort of thing, it is kind of like the struggle of staying the path, I guess, no matter whether people listen or care or not. And people do care, and  I think its awesome, but if I knew for a fact people didn’t care, people stopped listening to the band, people just wrote us off and didn’t care would I still be pursuing such a lofty sort of artistic view behind it?

And when you say “This language is dead”, what are you referring to?

JS: That’s funny because I actually say it in track 2 or I actually say it earlier in the album. I say “They say the language is dead well then why do we speak?” Again not to be a broken record but that right then represents what I was talking about. “They say the language is dead well then why do we speak?”  If there is no such thing as revolts, if there is no such thing as community, if there is no such thing as the underground world or people that care then why do we continue on? Why are we pushing on? It is all kind of revolving around the long live, the mentality of all this stuff. The last song I repeat over and over that language is dead is, without the lyrics in front of me to explain it all, its basically saying, well not a hopelessness but it is basically saying the language is dead, the reality is this is the day in which we all live. We do live in an age where I feel people care a little bit less than they used to etc. But I would like to think that if this great thing happened it would force everyone to gather back around. So it almost ties on and ties back together all the lyrics of a lot of the album is questioning are we in this state? The song where we are the revolution and the last song are basically a confirmation that this is where we are at but the other lyrics say it doesn’t have to be the end. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We can always evolve and grow from where we are at. One of my problems is always looking at the past and looking at what they did back then and look at the community that they had, look at the gathering together that they did back then. Well, that is not where we are now. We are in the day and age of technology and Twitter and iTunes, and instead of being bummed and being like “Man, the good ole days,” taking what we have now, roll with it, push forward. Evolve from here. This is where we are at, lets make the most of that. All of that is sort of a stamping that, a confirmation that we can move forward from here easy enough.

What do you feel is the biggest lie that our generation is being fed right now?

JS: Oh gosh…..I don’t know. It is hard because I don’t even know if it is…..this force feeding of lies mentality or if it is just over time greying out of and fading away from, nothing like the government is feeding us trash and we have to stand against it. It is that things really did happen we really did get convenient technologyand these items that kept us inside of our house. These computers and things. I think more so than maybe a lie that is being said. I will touch on that in a second. The thing that is scariest to me is the complacency of walking about in this planet andnot having any sort of push or drive if that thing comes. To be able to walk outside and revolt against something but to be part of something and risk fighting for something that you may lose but the principle is still there and it still deserves to be fought for. That sort of mentality, I think, is completely gone.

As far as one of the lies I feel we shove down our throats, and again I don’t think it is a big scary man that is feeding it. The whole world works off of supply and demand, and we obviously demanded at some point they supply it, but, at the same time this whole sort of generation of reality television and rock stars everywhere, one of the worst things that is going on right now is that everybody is living that rock star lifestyle. They don’t work ,they don’t do this, they don’t do that, they just party. I mean literally they just party hard. They just float through life with their mom and dad’s money or whatever it may be. And everybody is famous. It is just a weird mentality because the reality of it is is that the majority of the United States does not live like that. But when you watch it over and over and you want to keep up with the Joneses so to speak and I think there is definitely some sort of mentality that has been lost that I don’t need stuff. I like some stuff but you don’t have to have the ridiculously expensive clothes and stuff like that. I think the problem is not necessarily  buying expensive clothes, that is a whole other topic. The problem is though that when you budget an allowance and you are trying so hard to keep up with the Joneses and trying so hard to fit this mold that television has given us, then you try to do it and you end up in this death cycle where you have to work to the bone to keep up with the Joneses. It is a real problem because it used to be that you could be okay with where you were at. You could watch these people on TV and be entertained and laugh like  “Haha, they are idiots!”, and go on about your way. Whereas now there is such an aspect of I have got to get there. And there is nothing so wrong with trying to get there and make money but the problem comes when you can’t differentiate between reality and basically you have to fake it until you make it. That whole mentality that TV does is people don’t know that. People literally live their lives trying to live like that but their budgets don’t allow that and they don’t think they are happy. They are trying to fill in another void that has nothing to do with money but they put it in that void. I think it is a very dangerous situation to be in. It could lead to long term troubles in your life. Because you have to remember that the average person in the United States is not rich. The majority is not doing all that but were are trying our best to do so and yet we don’t have the budget to do so. I don’t really know where I am going with all that but I feel that it is a very scary thing that people feel that they have to live that way because pop-culture tells us to.

Yes, right on. This has been all of our conversations here in the office over the last month, just how screwed up our priorities are and how we’re all trying to be something bigger than we are on the Internet so that we can feel like we’ve reached that fame, or made something of ourselves but we’re all still very lonely at night because we’re not investing in those that are around us, into a tangible community.

JS: Exactly, and the scary thing is with music, maybe not, but the mentality was like “I just want to create good art.” As an artist, to make good art  you are almost okay with dying a starving artist. If money came, cool, but if it didn’t, cool. My main goal is I am an artist and I want art that I am proud of. Nowadays it is almost like art is down the list of priorities with whats going on these days. Not with everybody but with certain people it is like first I need to get famous. Secondly, I need to make sure I am rich. And I almost feel that fame is more important than being rich and I am thinking what a shame with people who think like that because fame just sounds like trouble to me. That just sounds annoying. You can’t go out of your house without people coming around. That doesn’t sound cool to me at all. I think we watch television and invest our minds into this whole world and I think people think it is some glamorous sort of thing. I don’t know, to me I think art is more important and I think I have much more respect for an artist and someone who is doing their art than for someone who is just famous. I want to see artists.  I want to see good art. I want to hear things that I say “Whoa, they put a lot of thought in that. They put their heart and souls into that” instead of hearing something that where I think the label went to them, had their meeting,  and say “You do this and we’ll do this” and they say “Okay” and it is cookie cutter and they put something out. It is not like we haven’t had our conversations with the label from time to time of what we should and shouldn’t do but at the end of the day I would have joined a different genre if I was trying to make money at this or be famous. This is what I want to do and this is how I want to do it and I hope enough people stay on board so that we can keep doing it.

We have interviewed you here at Hopecore.com before, and you spoke about the chaos of your live show and how you would not move if you felt that there was no reason to. With that in mind what are the circumstances for your “best” show?

JS: I don’t remember specifically what I was saying at that moment, but what I mean is that we are not energetic on stage because The Chariot is energetic on stage. The only reason we move is because we write songs that will hopefully push us on stage whether we have had a good day or whether we have had a bad day. I don’t want that to misinterpret into that we only move because the crowd is going crazy or the sound is right. That is trivial stuff. We play our show and we do what we do regardless of what the circumstance are but basically it is all in this linear frame of mind. We don’t go “Oh, lets start a band and just be  crazy on stage.” It is basically we want to write this music. Well, I am very passionate about certain things so let’s be passionate. it is so cool. So we try to write this passionate music and that is why I am screaming because it is out of passion. That is why we do distorted chords and the loud guitars and the feedback because it all falls naturally into what I am trying to say. So then because of that, it has never been discussed, because of that we get up on stage and we go to play that and it is either on or its off. There is only one switch. There is never “Tonight I am going to go easy because it doesn’t look like there is a lot of crowd here and they don’t look into it.” It is not like that. It is the same music and it is pushing us and it is keeping us on our toes and it is keeping us motivated and pushed and therefore we do what we do on stage based our beliefs and our love of the art and our love of what we are doing and our love of the songs we have written. There have been a couple of days here and there where I have just had a terrible day and you get up on stage and you don’t think about it. You are not like “Man, I am bummed and now I have to go crazy.” It is not like that. It is very natural. It is a very free flowing thing and at the end of the day those four clicks happen and those guitars kick in and all of the sudden it is like you are different person. You are up there and you are dancing it out and making it happen. That music really does just push you. That sort of where that comes from. I definitely don’t want anyone to misinterpret and think that we only move because if the crowd is moving.  I feel it is the other way around. We have toured with plenty of bands who get up on stage and there is a handful of people and they are not very into it and you watch the worst show ever because they are bummed. What are you up there for? If you don’t enjoy playing music and you have to have the crowd going buckwild for you to enjoy playing music then what are you doing it for. Because at the end of the day the people may like it and may come or not. Our band is the perfect example. We may play a show for 1,200 kids and the next day for 50. If you are only enjoying it because other people are enjoying it then that is a bummer because especially in the beginning years that is the majority of your shows. If you are actually enjoying the music you wrote then it is a win win. You can never have a bad show. That is sort of the mentality that we live by. We enjoy playing our songs. We enjoy writing them. We enjoy recording them. Therefore, not making that much money is not the end of the world because we actually enjoy what we do. So it is a win win for us. There is definitely bands we tour with who need that external stuff coming in or else they are kind of over it and you kind of wonder why they are continuing on.

To date, what is your most memorable show?

JS: There are a top three shows. I am not necessarily saying they are the funnest but they are definitely the most memorable. We actually flew into Russia and played Moscow. At that time in our lives it was by far the most dangerous show we have ever played. Kids were going berserk. Kids were running up on stage and tackling us they were so excited. It was all out of good heart. They were just excited. They were just going crazy. We love that it keeps us on our toes. Kids getting involved is what we want, that is what we like. We like the interaction. We pride ourselves on it not being us up there and you down there. It is all of us together. Russia at that time in our lives was easily the most dangerous show. People were jumping off this second floor balcony kinda nonstop. Me and our bassist, we didn’t talk about it, during this one part I crowd surfed out to this balcony and I had them pick me up and I climbed all the way up and I look over and there is our bassist as well. I still had my microphone so this one part comes in and we both jump from this balcony. It was the proper wild show. The last Europe tour we did earlier this year sometime in Italy. It was a smaller show. It was a small club but it was packed and sold out because it was small. That was one of the most dangerous shows. Kids were going berserk. Our bassist jumped out into the crowd, which happens quite often. Then after awhile, a good while, I just happened to notice he still wasn’t on stage. I was kinda in my own world but once I caught on that he wasn’t there I look into the crowd and finally can find him and I grab him and pull him out. He is not concerned about playing his bass he is just trying to get out of this crowd., this maniac crowd. He ended up with a black eye. They were just going crazy. We loved it, loved that energy, loved that good hearted, spastic, I don’t know what to do mentality. On that same tour, that was the Italy show, we played in Germany, I can’t remember what exactly city it was. Obviously Germany is quite big but we played a show in Germany and again it was a small club and therefore it was packed and those are easily the top three. Every show is memorable in its own way. Every show is amazing in its own way. But those definitely I will never forget because we had to stay on our toes because these people are crazy and jumping up wanting to sing along and then as soon as they are done they jump out into the crowd. It is just fun, a good time. And even though we got the black eye and people get scrapes here and there it is good hearted. It is not anybody trying to be a tool bag or any knuckleheads trying to hurt anybody. There are just going crazy and I really like that impulsive spontaneous bursts which is pretty much what our band does. Everything we do live is pretty impulsive, pretty spontaneous. So when we reach a show like that it is very conducive to what we do and we really enjoy it.

Having just released Long Live last week, what are The Chariot’s tour plans for the next few months?

JS: We are about to go out with Cancer Bats and we are doing a co-headliner. Part Canada part US and that will be awesome. While we are in the US are going to be with this band Stray from the Path. They are awesome. I really love both those bands, Cancer Bats and Stray from the Path. It is a really exciting tour for us because we rarely get to tour with people who we already know are awesome and we genuinely love the music. We actually listen to it on our own time. That is a very rare treat. We are really excited to do this. After that we do Christmas then after that we go on the Silverstein tour which has Miss May I and Pierce the Veil. Should be relatively fun. Then after that, there is nothing confirmed, but we are looking to possibly hit Australia for the first time then possibly go back to Europe. Try to support then hopefully Warped Tour. We don’t have, as of now, anything confirmed but we have been trying to get on that for awhile now. We have been trying to support as many tours as we can to get out there and hope for the best.

You obviously have a great passion for music. What does music mean to you personally?

JS: I always say Jesus saved my soul but music saved my life. I definitely went through some dark times when I was a kid. The whole teenage thing, maybe we all do it, but there was definitely some times when  I really looked to the music to help me out of a lot of stuff. I remember being a kid and literally times where I didn’t know how to move forward but I was able to listen to music and listen to certain things and really gather my thoughts back together and it got me back to a place of reality where I could move forward. That is why it is such a passionate thing for me. It is such a real life thing. I have actually been there in some crazy crazy times, even here recently. I have been doing this a long time and I am not one of those dudes who is old and jaded and kind of bitter and realizes the terribleness that is the music industry and how fake everything is. I am the other guy who still hopes and believes. For me music is something that I deeply believe in and I deeply want to pursue, and want to hope blesses folks. Even here recently as an adult my father passed away a couple of years ago. It was music that was easy to turn to and help me. It is my drug, basically…in a very healthy and very good way. I am a believer so for me it is two-fold: to be able to have that and folks in my life to push you through moments that you don’t know how to get through. You just don’t know what to do. And maybe there isn’t an answer of what to do but at least you can fall into this zone and either escape it for awhile or sometimes it really helps you pull through it. Actually helps you get to the other side. That is something that I believe in heavily.